Rose Care Guide (2018) - Everything You Should Know About Roses

Everything You Need to Know About Roses

Content History of Roses Rose Varieties Hybrid Tea Roses

Floribunda Roses

Climbing Roses

Shrub Roses

Austin Roses

Rambling Roses

Rose Colors and Meanings Planting

Light

Feeding

Pruning

Watering

Pests and Diseases

Uses of Roses Perfume Food & Drink Culture & Art

Rose Decoration Tips

Introduction

Roses, with their vibrant colors and entrancing fragrance, are the perfect flowers for bringing feelings of happiness and joy. Learning about these tender beauties can bring its own pleasure. When you understand the history and significance of roses, you understand more fully what roses have meant and still mean. Then, you can learn how to care for them and fill your home with your favorite blossoms.

History of Roses Roses have been around for a very long time. How long?

There’s fossil evidence that there were roses 35 million years ago! About 5,000 years ago, people in China started cultivating them in gardens. The Middle East was where they were grown most extensively during the Roman period.

The War of the Roses, a 15th-century conflict over who would control England, was so named because each of the factions was symbolized by a rose, Lancaster by the red and York by the white. In the 17th century, roses were legal tender among royalty.

Cultivated roses from China were brought to Europe in the 1700s. The Chinese roses bloomed more than once, which was an advantage over the European varieties, so they became more popular and are the ancestors of most of the roses grown today.

Rose Varieties

With over 150 species and at least 3,000 varieties of roses, this flower comes in a vast variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and fragrances. The following are a few of the most beloved varieties of roses.

Hybrid Tea Roses: Also called the standard rose, the hybrid rose is the variety most used in the floral industry.

They’re long-stemmed and have very little fragrance.

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All My Loving Rose

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American Dream Rose

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Black Baccara Rose

Climbing Roses: Climbing roses grow vertically and can be trained to follow fences or trestles. They have large, repeating blooms.

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Fourth of July Rose

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May Queen Rose

Austin Roses: David Austin started this variety of English roses about 50 years ago. They have a rosette shape and a distinctive fragrance.

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Wollerton Old Hall Rose

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Fighting Temeraire Rose are two examples.

Floribunda Roses: These roses have clusters of blooms shaped like those of hybrid tea roses.

They are easy to care for, so they’re often used in public park flowerbeds.

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Julia Child Floribunda Rose

and •

Impatient Floribunda Rose.

Shrub Roses: Shrub rose blooms grow on large bushes.

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Ballerina Rose

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Blanc Double de Coubert Rose

Rambling Roses: Rambling roses only bloom once, with 7-clustered blooms. They have flexible stems and few thorns. Among ramblers, there are: •

Adelaide d’ Orleans

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Albertine

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Goldfinch

Rose Colors and Meanings Roses have always held special meanings for those who give and receive them. Over the years, different colors of roses have become associated with specific meanings.

Red roses stand for romance, love, beauty, and perfection.

Pink roses signify gentle admiration, grace, sweetness, happiness, and joy.

Yellow roses show the joy of friendship, but they can also mean infidelity.

White roses mean purity and innocence.

Peach colored roses mean modesty.

Lavender roses express love at first sight.

Burgundy roses display unconscious beauty.

Cream-colored roses show your charm and thoughtfulness.

How to Care for Roses

Caring for roses is not as difficult as many people assume.

With a little knowledge and a bit of effort, you can grow lush, healthy roses that surprise and delight you year after year.

Planting Plant your roses in the spring, after the last frost. You can plant them in the fall if you prefer but be sure to get them in the ground six weeks or more before the average first frost where you live. Plant on a cloudy day.

Plant them somewhere with good drainage. Dig a deep hole.

Save the dirt you remove from the hole and mix it with peat moss or garden compost. Place your rose into the hole and surround it with the mixture. Add fertilizer. Pour in water.

Then, fill the hole the rest of the way up, water it again, and mound up dirt around the stems.

Feeding Plant your roses in the spring, after the last frost. You can plant them in the fall if you prefer but be sure to get them in the ground six weeks or more before the average first frost where you live. Plant on a cloudy day.

Plant them somewhere with good drainage. Dig a deep hole. Save the dirt you remove from the hole and mix it with peat moss or garden compost. Place your rose into the hole and surround it with the mixture. Add fertilizer. Pour in water. Then, fill the hole the rest of the way up, water it again, and mound up dirt around the stems.

Watering Rose experts suggest that you should give your roses the equivalent of one inch of rainfall per week. How much is that? It depends on several factors.

If your climate is windy, arid, or hot, your roses need more water than if you live where it’s cooler and more humid. Sandy soil dries out faster than clay soils, too. Water with a soaker hose to avoid getting the leaves wet.

Light Roses love the sun. If you can, plant them in full sunlight.

In any case, they need at least six hours of sunlight each day. Direct sunlight is best.

Pruning If you’ve never pruned a plant before, it can seem like a difficult task. It isn’t. You can’t kill your roses by over-pruning them. Still, if you follow a few simple guidelines, you can have more beautiful roses.

Prune your established rose bushes in the spring. First, take off all the damaged and dead stems. Next, cut stems back to one-third of the previous year’s growth. You can groom them lightly throughout the growing season to have neatly-groomed roses.

If your roses aren’t classed as “self-cleaning,” you’ll need to deadhead them during the season as well. Do this by cutting back below the first five-leafed stem. This allows your rose bush to keep putting on new blooms.

Pests and Diseases The easiest way to keep your roses disease-free is to start with disease-resistant varieties.

Powdery mildew can leave your rose’s leaves with white patches. To prevent this, water at ground level and keep your roses pruned.

Black spot looks like circular black or brown spots on the leaves. It’s a fungal disease that you can prevent with the same techniques you use to prevent powdery mildew.

Fight pests like aphids, sawflies, and spider mites by applying insecticide soap or neem oil. If your roses only have aphids, spray them with a burst of water early in the morning.

Uses of Roses

Roses are beautiful, but they have many different uses, too.

Perfume

The sweet smell of roses can be concentrated into a rose oil called attar of roses. This basic ingredient is used in many perfumes, either as the main ingredient or as one of many.

Food & Drink Rose petals can make a simple meal more elegant as well as tastier. They can be layered on anything from a wedding cake to a cracker spread with nut butter. You may even get a chance to eat candied rose petals. Rose hips are used for jams and jellies, as well as for rose hips tea.

Specialty foods from the Middle East and South Asia that use rose water include baklava and barfi. The French make rose syrup. Rose-flavored fondant is a traditional U.K. dessert.

Roses are becoming more popular these days as an ingredient for cocktails. Usually, the drink contains either rosewater, rose syrup, or a rose-infused liquor. You can also make your own rose petal wine to enjoy at home.

Culture & Art From the single rose given by a young lover to rose tattoos to the roses depicted in artistic paintings, images of roses permeate the culture. Scientists estimate that the first known painting of a rose was made in about 1500 BCE. From then on, many artists have painted roses.

by Vincent Van Gogh

by Sandro Botticelli

Christian artists have often used the red rose to represent Christ’s sacrifice. The French impressionist Edouard Manet painted roses and irises in watercolors as a part of his series of paintings of bouquets brought to him by his friends.

Sandro Botticelli was well-known as an artist who used roses creatively. In his “Birth of Venus,� he showed the sweat of the goddess as roses falling into the water below. Later, in the classical paintings of the Renaissance, Raphael, Michelangelo, and other famous artists used roses in some of the most famous paintings in history.

Rose Decoration Tips

You can use roses to decorate your yard, your home, or any place you choose. Here are some tips for decorating with roses: •

Match, contrast, or coordinate rose colors with your

interior décor, but don’t let the color palette be too busy.

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Place roses in bowls or short vases to

use as centerpieces that don’t block the view for conversations.

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Look for unusual vases or woven

baskets that can accommodate simple, white roses.

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Place multi-hued roses in a vase,

sorted by their position on the color wheel.

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Put a single red rose in a bud vase and place it on your

loved one’s breakfast tray.

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Use a clear green vase with yellow roses to celebrate

spring.

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Use bronze or stone vases to give your roses a timeless

look.

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